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Monday, January 31, 2011

Free genetic manipulation.

This is the summary of a summary.Teachers in france have been offered the opportunity to teach their 16 year old students, how to genetically modify bacteria.Agencies that advocate for strictier control of genitical engineering, such as CRIIGEN. They are concerned of modified E. coli cells, inserted with an ampicilin resistance plasmid, breaking out from the classroom to the environment.But of course that those who manufacture E. coli manipulation kits, say that the practical is a useful tool for students and there is no risk in it. They sustain that the kit is equipped with sterilization procedures.I support the opinion given by Valérie Sipahimalani, national secretary in charge of biology and geology for the National Union of Secondary Teachers. "Personally, I don't believe in teaching manipulation for manipulation's sake," she says. "More importantly, DNA takes a lot of time to explain — it is very complicated for secondary school-students to understand."

3 comments:

study, work or pray or anything,just doing it only for the sake of doing is not good. science is complicated, it is in the hands of teacher to make it interesting and make the students to look for more.

I think this took the wrong shift, by the comment that DNA is too complicated for middleschoolers. What is more important to debate is the bioethical implication of this, and how really necessary is for middleschoolers to modify a bacteria. I think it is important for them to understand DNA, but i don't think there is a need to genetically modify an organism at that stage in life. Of course the outcome of such a school program can also be taken as a research project.

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